Tropical sailing equals squalls...

The last passage of our Brazil cruise was an easy one and there is no need for a blow by blow description. We were blessed with excellent weather. Prevailing winds are North Easterly, so we were lucky, given our destination in the North East to get Easterlies all week. 

However. The squalls, a prominent feature of our tropical sailing experience, were back in force. After a hot summer a train of thunderstorms built up out at sea, a series of billowing cumulonimbus clouds came shuffling across the sky, loaded with rain. Bringing brief but very intense downpours and gusts they are not so much a hazard to navigation as an irritation. During the day they pass and we huddle in the cabin sitting out the rain. During the night they seem to arrive whenever you get your head down to sleep, and shake the boat to keep you awake. 

I have tried to describe them before, but given a video is worth 10,000 words and all that here is a brief snippet of me caught out helming during one such squall.

Fernando de Noronha

At the end of the last Brazillian passage, our 700 mile trip upwind from Salvador was Fernando de Noronha. There are honestly no good words to describe this place, and for Giulia and I it was the best stop on our travels to date¹.

Brazil to Barbados - A Passage Diary

Our longest passage to date - 2000 miles and 16 days a sea. I thought I would keep a diary, as a record of how the passage progressed day to day, including notes on what we ate, as fresh stores diminished over the course of the passage.

Overall we had a really good passage, making good time and keeping up good spirits through out.

Day 1

Easterly F4 – Almost dead downwind, full main and poled out jib.

Lunch: Egg, tomato, carrot and tuna salad.

Dinner: Scrambled egg with potato, tomato and onion.

Waved goodbye to paradise. Saw one last turtle alongside while motoring out of the harbour. Hoisted main and poled out jib top. Everything good! Loving sailing downwind after 1500 miles upwind from Rio. Spent most of the day sleeping.